Marvel Two-In-One #74

December 14, 2007

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: A Christmas Peril!

The Thing and the Puppet Master face some terrible toys!

Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Frank Springer
Inks: Chic Stone
Colors: George Roussos
Letters: Michael Higgins
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Now here’s something fun – a blast from 1981 and the old Marvel Two-In-One title, which featured Benjamin J. Grimm, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing, in a team-up with a different hero every month. Well… almost every month. This issue, as you see, Ben’s partner wasn’t one of his fellow heroes, but in fact, a villain! Yep, Benjy had to team up with his old enemy (and stepfather to his girlfriend Alica), the Puppet Master for a Christmas adventure!

When the Puppet Master is released from prison just in time for Christmas, he realizes that his supply of the supernatural clay that he uses to sculpt his mind-controlling puppets has gone bad during his incarceration. In order to get back to the old country where he found it, he feigns a reconciliation with Alica, casually mentioning that all he really wants for Christmas is a trip back “home.” Ben is coerced into playing pilot and takes Alicia and the Puppet Master to the small country of Transia, not knowing his foe’s real goal. Of course, even for the FF, things get ridiculously complicated when Ben and Alicia encounter Bova, one of the High Evolutionary’s experiments in evolving animals to sentient creatures – and her young (and mind-scrambled) ward, Modred. Oh, and during the night Ben and the Puppet Master get shrunk to the size of toys and wind up having to duke it out with an army of Nutcrackers, roller horsies and fire-breathing beasties.

This story, to be blunt, is just kind of weird. Fun weird, mind you, but weird nonetheless. Ben, to his credit, is immediately and consistently skeptical of the Puppet Master’s “change of heart,” and Gruenwald does a good job of selling him as the chauffeur for this little adventure totally against his will. In the end, though, the whole thing is kind of screwy, relying entirely too much on the coincidence of encountering Bova.

I’m as big a fan of Ben Grimm as you’ll find, but I couldn’t get totally engaged in this comic. Not bad, but just strange. Especially once you remember the fact that Ben Grimm – star of our Christmas adventure – is actually Jewish. (Granted, this wasn’t established for many years, but it was always in the subtext.)

Rating: 6/10